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core skills: Practice Exercises

The following exercises are based on the information covered up to this point and cover the topics of breathing, aiming, trigger control and position. They can be done at any time by person of any level of ability. They do not need to be done in order, although for novice level shooters it may be beneficial to follow the order given here because some exercises rely on knowledge and skill gained in a previous exercise.

For each exercise a few lines are provided on the most likely outcome to help the shooter interpret their results. However, if the group sizes being shot are quite large it may not be possible to see some of the differences described.

Other exercises

Why shoot groups of five shots instead of ten

Most of the practice exercises here are based on shooting groups of 5 shots at a single diagram. The exercises could be done with ten shot groups instead of five but there are a few reasons why five shots might be preferable:

Five shots may not be enough to show the full size of a shooter’s group but it does give an indication if the group is 5cm wide or 1cm wide

Shooting a large number of rounds can be tiring for people new to the sport. For exercises requiring multiple groups to be shot, firing 15 shots or 30 shots can have a large difference on the level of comfort of the shooter

If the shooter becomes physically tired or uncomfortable during the exercise the quality of their shooting will reduce and distort the outcome of the exercise as errors begin to occur.

Each exercise required the shooter to think back on what they have done after they finish shooting. If 10 shots have been fired it can be difficult to remember each one individually and whether the focus was believed to be correct or not for each shot. Five shots is a small enough number to enable the shooter to remember for example that the 2nd shot went ‘a bit to the right’.

The Information and images in these sections are taken directly from the early chapters in Smallbore Rifle Shooting: A Practical Guide (with permission from the author)

The book goes into each topic in greater depth than we cover on this site. For more detailed information on the book and how to get hold of it click here